When a quaintly traditional chocolatier has so many customers that it has to employ nightclub-style bouncers to marshal a queue that snakes down the high street, it is a fair bet that they have nailed the art of fashioning a tasty slab of the brown stuff.

Such is the status of fourth-generation family-run business
Haigh’s Chocolates
, which has been satisfying cocoa-based cravings since its first store opened in Adelaide in 1915. As Easter approaches, the company’s 14 shops are again manning up to handle the throngs, across South Australia, Victoria and its two Sydney locations. But one of its two sibling custodians, co-managing director
Simon Haigh
, is pondering whether the time has come to embrace the internet.

Having grown up immersed in the traditions of chocolate-making, the unassuming exec admits that he has been in no hurry to change the evidently successful formula. But in an industry still shaken by the fall of former high-street favourite Darryl Lea, Haigh says the time will soon be right to open the virtual doors to chocoholics from further afield.

A visit to the company’s website is ­little more than a tease for sweet-tooths. Where most retailer websites will pop up an online checkout, visitors to the Haigh’s site get to browse the range of chocolates on offer, before being directed at the last minute to visit the nearest store.

“Online shopping is one of the areas we are now looking at very closely. It has got a few logistical issues surrounding it, such as distribution around Australia, but I think there will be a big convenience factor for customers with it," Haigh says.

“We are currently limited-distribution through our own retail outlets, and the internet would definitely open up a different sales channel to a lot of areas that we don’t service now."

It may seem like a fresh idea straight out of the late 1990s, but in reality Haigh says the company has never felt like it has suffered from the lack of an online sales presence. However, changing trends, such as the emergence of increasingly popular chocolate cafes, are ushering in a new way of thinking.

Haigh says an online presence will help his business play a bigger role in the generic gift market, helping it compete with florists for the dollars of time-pushed Romeos around Valentine’s Day, and the desk-bound at Christmas and Easter.

Related Quotes

Company Profile

It has taken some early steps into social media, with a Facebook following approaching 15,000, but is yet to join the chorus of tweeting brands.

“I suppose Twitter is something that is on the horizon.

“It is another distribution channel for branding and getting information back," Haigh says.

“The reality is that it is a com­muni­cations channel used by many ­people, so if you don’t use it, you run the risk of isolating yourself," he says.

While the grudging acceptance of social media could make Haigh appear something of a technology laggard, he declares himself to be a computing aficionado. A mobile phone user since the days of masonry-sized NEC handsets, he was a long-time fan of Windows-based computing as a way to organise his working life.

Even though he has moved on to the Apple ecosystem these days, largely at the behest of his children, he was not particularly keen to make the switch.

“I was very much a Windows person and disdained Apple products for quite some time. It was probably the first iPhone that changed my mind, really," Haigh says. “I now have a Mac as my main desktop. It pretty much gives you the best of both worlds as you can run Windows on it when you want and then jump into Apple mode."

Having cited his four kids as good evangelists for Apple products, he concedes that he could have done a better job of keeping their hands off the technology. Like many parents he is trying to balance the need for his children to know enough about technology without them being hooked on it all day.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think we have protected them from it that well. My son seems to be addicted to it to a ­certain degree, so we do try and limit it."

With the younger ones – he has five- year-old twins – he has watched in amazement as they latch on to his iPad and drive it intuitively like a professional.

“They all have iPods now, so that means half my time at home is spent making sure it is up to date and working. I don’t think you can really stop kids from using technology, but I do believe you need to try to control it a bit."